Unorthadox Way to catch Bass....

I took the kids fishing yesterday at a local private pond. I was fishing for cats on the bottom and my youngest son was fishing for bluegill with a bobber and worms.

He landed a handful of bluegill and would bring them over to me to unhook them and toss them back in. I noticed he hadn't bothered me for awhile and asked him if everything was ok...he said "yeah...just trying to catch a bigger fish".

Within the next five minutes he was yelling..."hurry...get over here, I've got a huge bass...hurry...I don't want him to get away." So I ran over and down the bank to where he was at and helped him by pulling a huge bass out of the water when he reeled it in to the shore. I asked him " wow...did you catch him with that little worm?" He said, " Nope...I caught him with a bluegill"

As I opened the bass's mouth to unhook him, I noticed a whole small sized bluegill wedged in the bass's mouth...the dorsal fin spines acted like a row of hooks that allowed the fish in,but not back out....since bass swallow them head first I take it...for just this reason...plus it would be aweful hard to swallow one tail first. I pulled the blugill out with a pair of pliers and that is when I noticed that the bluegill had swallowed the hook and worm he was fishing with....so he cast him back out and used it as bait. I guess the Bass could't resist the distressed little fish and took a big bite. I was going to pull the hook out of the bluegill and my son said "no...leave it in there...I want to catch another bass." So I did...and he did....who would have thought.

Pic of my son and his prized Bass


His bass are the two top fish...the lower bass is one that swallowed my hook later and it wasn't the first time either, I found a rusty hook still lodged in its throat.

Way too cool! That makes for a great fish story and good eating too

Awesome!!!! Never would have thunk that one before....... Congrats

very cool!

We use Bluegill for Wiper fishing bait, not whole though.

Way cool!! If I ever find myself out your way I know who my fishing buddy is gonna be.

Atta boy, great job

He caught some nice fish!

Great little fisherman you have there

yea we use little bluegill for musky and pike around here but they will catch bass and cats to!

dartfreak75 wrote:yea we use little bluegill for musky and pike around here but they will catch bass and cats to!

Yeah, I've caught many bass, cats and turtles using bluegill for bait....but never without using a hook too.

Those are some mighty fine looking smallmouth bass. Im sure that is a day that you both will remember forever. Thanks for sharing it with us.

hawcer wrote:

dartfreak75 wrote:yea we use little bluegill for musky and pike around here but they will catch bass and cats to!

Yeah, I've caught many bass, cats and turtles using bluegill for bait....but never without using a hook too.

yea lol that is a pretty unique way of doing it i guess those stubborn fins on bluegill are good for something after all lol thats dang things hurt if you grab them the wrong way !

here is my monster catch from sunday nights catfishing trip lol we didnt catch any cats but i caught three bluegill two this size and one nice one!

Don't hurt yourself trying to eating all of that one at one sitting dart LOL!!
Too bad you didn't get the catfish to cooperate...

Hey Dart...just cast that back in the way it is on the line. stay close to the shore and keep the line out length to a minimum....if it is still alive,the bass will be all over it,LOL.

seriously good fish story and pictures for the proof..... nice.... good job....